Kyma wins support in two US military projects
Kyma Technologies, the Raleigh, NC, company that specializes in native GaN substrates, has won funding under two new projects sponsored by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
Each of the Phase 1 MDA programs is looking at the development of GaN materials and devices for next-generation military radar systems, including X-band applications.
Kyma plans to increase GaN substrate sizes and improve the material quality of its semi-insulating GaN through the new projects.
The US military is already funding wide-bandgap development through its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) effort (see related stories).
But whereas these DARPA projects, already well underway, are concentrating on the more mature non-native substrate SiC, Kyma's approach offers the potential to grow transistors with better high-frequency performance characteristics and reliability.
"The benefits of native GaN have already shown excellent preliminary results across a broad range of device types, including avalanche photodiodes, field-effect transistors, laser diodes, LEDs and Schottky diodes," said Drew Hanser, co-founder and CTO at Kyma.
The use of native substrates has also been identified as a likely move by makers of GaN laser diodes for the latest DVD equipment, who have been beset by yield problems caused to a large degree by the lattice mismatch between sapphire and GaN.